Orbital (1993 album)

Orbital (also known as Orbital 2 or The Brown Album) is the eponymous second studio album by English electronic music duo Orbital, released on 24 May 1993 by Internal and FFRR Records.

For other uses, see The Brown Album (disambiguation).
Orbital
Studio album by
Orbital
Released24 May 1993
GenreTechno
Length65:44
Label
ProducerOrbital
Orbital chronology
Orbital
(1991)		 Orbital
(1993)		 Snivilisation
(1994)
Singles from Orbital
  1. "Halcyon"
    Released: September 1992
  2. "Lush"
    Released: August 1993

The album peaked at number 28 on the UK Albums Chart.

Album

On Orbital the duo aimed to make more atmospheric music than the dance raves of their first album. They used more complex rhythms and denser arrangements on the appropriately named pieces entitled "Lush" but still proving themselves capable of making quality pop music on "Halcyon + On + On", with vocals from Kirsty Hawkshaw of Opus III.

The album begins with "Time Becomes", which uses the same speech sample by the actor Michael Dorn in Star Trek: The Next Generation (Time squared - season 2 episode 13, Worf - 20'30 : "There is the theory of the Möbius. A twist in the fabric of space where time becomes a loop") which opened their first album. The piece uses phasing, a technique popularized by Steve Reich, in which two identical samples are repeated at slightly different speeds. The brothers enjoy aural puns, and the use of the sample from Star Trek: The Next Generation (which appeared on the opening of their first album) was meant to play with listeners by making them believe for a few seconds that they had bought a mispressing. The muffled intro on "Planet of the Shapes" has the intentional addition of record static and crackles, followed by the sound of a needle skipping grooves then scratching across the record, also meant to trick fans who bought the vinyl edition, by making them think their copy was less than perfect.

The second song on the album, "Planet of the Shapes", contains a sample from the movie Withnail & I ("even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day"). "Impact" also samples a line from "a French film dubbed into English" with a "conspiracy, alien plot" that the band no longer remembers the name of.[1][2][3]

Meat Beat Manifesto were an influence on the album, after Orbital toured with the group in the United States ahead of recording it.[4] The breakbeat on "Impact" was provided by Jack Dangers[5] and "Remind" is an instrumental re-recording of Orbital's "Mind the Bend the Mind" remix of "Mindstream" by Meat Beat Manifesto, which removed all elements of "Mindstream" from the piece.[6] The remix and final work was inspired by the Fabio Paras remix of React 2 Rhythm's I Know You Like It.[7]

"Walk Now..." samples the sound of a Sydney zebra crossing alert and a didgeridoo, which were both recorded after a trip to Australia to perform at an illegal rave named Welcome 92.[8]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[9]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[10]
Entertainment WeeklyA[11]
NME9/10[12]
Q[13]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[14]
Select4/5[15]
Slant Magazine[16]
The Village VoiceC+[17]
Vox8/10[18]

The album received widespread acclaim. In the UK, NME praised the record, saying, "The techno album is a doughty brute to master. Only a few have managed it successfully [...] but Phil and Paul Hartnoll have done it twice... The expression 'intelligent ambience' is bandied around to describe spacey dance music with undue regularity, but Untitled actually satisfies the description. Scientific and terrific."[12] Q also recognised that the duo had made a second successful album, saying, "Like their first album, Orbital's current effort is a finely balanced combination of muso trickery and astute dance tracks... Again, like the latter, it benefits from repeated listening."[13] Melody Maker claimed that "This new album (untitled, like the first) puts them firmly back in the firmament". In a reference to the most talked about band at the time of the album's release, Suede and their sexually ambiguous frontman Brett Anderson, and including a pun on "Anarchy in the U.K.", the debut single by the Sex Pistols, the review concluded, "As warm as plasma and as eerie as ectoplasm, Orbital's (out-of-)body-music is the true sound of Androgyny-in-the-UK."[19] Vox observed that "this collection sees Paul and Phil Hartnoll drifting still further into the heart of the machine, touching upon the sometimes fragile soul of Techno", before declaring that "Orbital are still leading the field".[18]

Accolades

This album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die[20] alongside their 1994 LP 'Snivilisation'. It (along with the In Sides album) was also included in Q magazine's "90 Best albums of the 1990s".[21] In 1996, Mixmag ranked the album at number 9 in its list of the "50 Best Dance Albums of All Time".[22] In 1999, Ned Raggett ranked the album at number 21 on his list of "The Top 136 or So Albums of the Nineties".[23]

Track listing
  1. "Time Becomes" – 1:43
  2. "Planet of the Shapes" – 9:36
  3. "Lush 3-1" – 5:39
  4. "Lush 3-2" – 4:40
  5. "Impact (The Earth Is Burning)" – 10:27
  6. "Remind" – 7:57
  7. "Walk Now..." – 6:48
  8. "Monday" – 7:05
  9. "Halcyon + On + On" – 9:28
  10. "Input Out" – 2:11

On cassette, "Planet of the Shapes" was re-titled "Planet of the Tapes" and placed as the first song on side 2, before "Walk Now..." in the track listing; the track is identical.

The title of track 2 "Planet of the Shapes" is also a reference to the 1968 film Planet of the Apes.

Use in other media

"Halcyon + On + On" and parts of "Lush 3-2" were used in the 1995 Mortal Kombat film soundtrack.

References
  1. "Orbital on Twitter: "the survival vocal in a minute is also from the same film. it was a french film dubbed into English which is why it was so clear." / Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  2. "Orbital on Twitter: "If you know the film PLEASE let me know!" / Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  3. "Orbital on Twitter: "It was some kind of conspiracy, alien plot" / Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  4. "Orbital on Twitter: "We moved in after going on our first proper tour, supporting Meat beat Manifesto in the USA, what a trip! Id hardly left Kent at the point ." / Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  5. "Orbital on Twitter: "thats a break beat we got from Jack Dangers of MBM" / Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  6. "Orbital on Twitter: "Another MBM connection , this is an instrumental version of a remix we did for them . the original track was called mindstream. we basically did a re write but with the vocals on the remix, then re mixed the remix for our own album." / Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  7. "Orbital on Twitter: "I think it has a little bit of influence from Fabio Paras I know your gonna like this react to rhythm remix. sort of prog trance. if you have to label things that is! its all house music to me!" / Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  8. "Walk Now - Sampled Aussie pedestrian crossing?". Gearslutz. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  9. Bush, John. "Orbital 2 – Orbital". AllMusic. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  10. Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-85712-595-8.
  11. Aaron, Charles (24 September 1993). "Orbital 2 (1993): Orbital". Entertainment Weekly. Time (189). ISSN 1049-0434. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  12. Kessler, Ted (22 May 1993). "Orbital: Orbital". NME. London, England: IPC Media: 31.
  13. King, Sam (July 1993). "Orbital: Orbital". Q. London, England: EMAP (82): 99.
  14. Randall, Mac (2004). "Orbital". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 607. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  15. Harrison, Andrew (June 1993). "Orbital: Orbital". Select. EMAP. ISSN 0959-8367. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  16. Cinquemani, Sal (2 November 2002). "Orbital: Orbital 2". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  17. Christgau, Robert (23 November 1993). "Turkey Shoot". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  18. Chong, Davydd (June 1993). "Orbital: Orbital". Vox. London, England: IPC Media (33): 87.
  19. Reynolds, Simon (22 May 1993). "Orbital: Orbital". Melody Maker. London, England: IPC Media: 29.
  20. Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (23 March 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 978-0-7893-2074-2.
  21. "90 Best albums of the 1990s". Q. Bauer Media. ISSN 0955-4955. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
  22. http://www.muzieklijstjes.nl/MixmagBestdance.htm
  23. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 20 January 2000. Retrieved 28 September 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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